Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser told CNBC on Friday he'd argue for raising interest rates sooner rather than later, especially after the release of the strong January jobs report.

The hawkish Plosser called the numbers "very good," adding they're another sign of a "fairly normal economy." He said people need to stop thinking about the economy in "perpetual crisis."

The government Friday morning reported a larger-than-expected 257,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls for January. The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent. Economists had expected a 234,000 increase, with the jobless rate holding steady at 5.6 percent.

The Federal Reserve always reacts to the quality of the economic numbers, which have been largely positive of late, Plosser said in a "Squawk Box"interview. While acknowledging that inflation is lower than policymakers would like to see, he blamed that trend mostly on the collapse in oil prices.

After their meeting last week, central bank policymakers signaled that they haven't ruled out a rate hike this year, though they did pledge continued patience in their deliberations.

The Fed introduced the word "patient" at the December meeting but kept the phrase "considerable time" in the policy statement then. But last month, it reiterated the "patient" promise but dropped "considerable time."

The Philadelphia Fed president said he never wanted to introduce "patient" into the mix in the first place. "Sometimes we get carried away ... [with transparency], and it leads us into sort of contorted" language.

Plosser, who's due to retire in March, is not a voting member this year on the central bank's policymaking Federal Open Market Committee. He voted on the panel last year.

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